Author Profiles
Ohio has a rich literary heritage as well as some wonderful contemporary authors. Learn more about them here! You can sort by various categories and see who has participated in our annual book festival by using the category search on the left, or search by keyword (including partial author names) by using the search field on the right.
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Tiara J. Brown
Tiara J. Brown grew up in Northeast Ohio and studied media at Ohio University. Although The Tales of Alexandria Stecklar: The Locket is her first published novel, she has been held captive by the art of story-telling since she was twelve-years-old. When she is not writing or reading, you can be found swing dancing, hiking, or traveling.
Echo Brown
Echo Brown is the award-winning author of Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard, which was named a William C. Morris Award Finalist, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, a CCBC Choice Title, and a Rise: A Feminist Book Project Selection, among other honors. A performer and playwright, Echo created the acclaimed one-woman show Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters. She is a Dartmouth alumna and the first female college graduate in her family. Learn more at: https://www.echobrown.com/
Lissa Bryan
Lissa Bryan is an astronaut, renowned Kabuki actress, Olympic pole vault gold medalist, Iron Chef champion, and scientist who recently discovered the cure for athlete’s foot … though only in her head. Real life isn’t so interesting, which is why she spends most of her time writing. She is the author of four novels, Ghostwriter, Under These Restless Skies, The End of All Things and its sequel, Land of the Shadow. She has short stories in Romantic Interludes and Tales from the End. More of Lissa may be found on her website, http://www.lissabryan.com/.
Kinley Bryan
Kinley Bryan applied her love of writing to the world of corporate communications before her fascination with historical fiction became too great to ignore. Her debut novel, Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury, is set during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913. It was inspired by stories of her great-grandfather Walter Stalker, who was at the helm of the four-masted schooner Golden Age, his wife Annabel serving as ship’s cook, when the storm hit. Kinley graduated summa cum laude from Kent State University with a degree in English, and earned a master’s degree in communications management from John Carroll University. Her love for the inland seas swelled during the years she spent in an old cottage on Lake Erie. She now lives with her husband and children on the Atlantic Coast, where she prefers not to lose sight of the shore.
Jeanne Bryner
Jeanne Bryner was born in Appalachia and grew up in Newton Falls, Ohio. A practicing registered nurse, she is a graduate of Trumbull Memorial’s School of Nursing and Kent State University’s Honors College. She has received writing fellowships from Bucknell University, the Ohio Arts Council (’97, 07), and Vermont Studio Center. Her poetry has been adapted for the stage and performed in Ohio, West Virginia, New York, Kentucky and Edinburgh, Scotland. With the support of Hiram College’s Center for Literature, Medicine and Biomedical Humanities, her nursing poetry has been adapted for the stage and performed by Verb Ballets in Cleveland, Ohio. She has a new play, “Foxglove Canyon” and she has eight books in print. She received an outstanding alumnae award from KSU, Trumbull Campus and her book, No Matter How Many Windows received the Working Class Studies’ Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing in Chicago. A community affiliate of the Center for Working Class Studies, she often writes about working class issues. She lives with her husband near a dairy farm in Newton Falls, Ohio. Bryner’s Smoke: Poems received second place in the 2012 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards. (Photo credit to Tammy Streets)
Carla Buckley
Carla Buckley is the author of the novels The Things That Keep Us Here and, Invisible. The Things That Keep Us Here was nominated for a Thriller Award as a best first novel, was a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award for fiction in 2011, and has been a favorite with book clubs around the country.…
Read MoreCarla Buckley is the author of the novels The Things That Keep Us Here and, Invisible. The Things That Keep Us Here was nominated for a Thriller Award as a best first novel, was a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award for fiction in 2011, and has been a favorite with book clubs around the country. In her novels, Buckley balances the intricacies of family dynamics with the terrifyingly real threat of new technology – pandemic viruses (The Things that Keep Us Here) and nano-techonology (Invisible). Buckley was born in Washington, D.C. She grew up overseas, but returned to Washington for high school and college. She has worked as an assistant press secretary for a U.S. senator, an analyst with the Smithsonian Institution, and a technical writer for a defense contractor. She serves on the Board of the International Thriller Writers as Vice President of Awards. She now makes her home in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, an environmental scientist, and their three children.
Gary Buettner
Gary Buettner (Bit-ner) has been writing spooky stories since junior high, but he’s been making up his own superheroes and stories since he was a little kid. Once, he even won a ten-speed bike by making up his own superhero for a contest on the back of a cereal box! Buettner studied creative writing in college at Indiana University, where he won awards for his stories. Check out his website: https://gbuettner.wixsite.com/monsterpetsbooks
John Bullock
John Bullock is English and has an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Virginia. His stories have appeared in the Antioch Review, Fifth Wednesday, the Laurel Review, Prague Review, Clackamas Literary Review, in the anthology Open Windows III, and in other journals. He teaches high school English in rural Ohio. Mark Small: This is Your Life is his first novel.
Tamara Bundy
Tamara Bundy, a graduate of the Ohio State University, is a former columnist for the Cincinnati Post. She teaches English at Miami University where she received her Master’s Degree. Tamara is the author or co-author of seven non-fiction books. Her middle grade novel, Walking with Miss Millie (Nancy Paulsen/Penguin) won several awards including the Ohioana Award for Middle Grade/Young Adult Fiction and has landed on many state reading lists. Her second middle grade novel, Pixie Pushes On recently released from Paulsen/Penguin. Bundy’s debut picture book, Lullaby Prayer, releases in November 2020 by Harper Collins Christian.
Kathleen Burgess
Kathleen S. Burgess hitchhiked from Washington, D.C., to Lima, Peru in 1971-2. What Burden Do Those Trains Bear Away is a memoir in poetry of this journey. Burgess is the editor of Reeds and Rushes—Pitch, Buzz, and Hum (Pudding House), author of Shaping What Was Left (Pudding House), Gardening with Wallace Stevens (Moria Books), and The Wonder Cupboard (NightBallet Press, 2019). A retired public school music teacher, her poetry has been published by, or is forthcoming in North American Review, Main Street Rag, Sou’wester, Malpaís Review, Cigar City Poetry Journal, Central American Poetry Review, others. History, world cultures, and an extensive musical background inform her poetry, research for professional presentations, and her collected musical instrument displays. http://www.kathleensburgess.com.